Spider fangs are one of their scariest features – new fossils reveal their origins

By Mark Williams, Professor of Palaeobiology, University of Leicester
Lorenzo Lustri, Postdoctoral Researcher, Arthropod Paleobiology, Yunnan University
Tom Harvey, Associate Professor in Geoscience, University of Leicester
Yu Liu, Professor of Palaeontology, University of Leicester

The publicity posters for the 1955 cult monster movie Tarantula! displayed a giant spider rampaging across the Arizona desert and clutching a poor human victim in its viciously long fangs. The film captured our fear of spiders, their creepy crawly motion and the hideous way they stab their prey to death, injecting a lethal venom.

Spiders, like their cousins the scorpions, are some of nature’s most accomplished hunters. Our new research looks at remarkable fossils excavated from Yunnan, southern China. We have…

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